In the shadow of Nurmagomedov: how Volkov and Ankalaev won at UFC 254

Of course, the fight between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Justin Gaethje was the key to the fact that the attention of the audience was riveted to UFC 254.

However, the tournament was notable not only for the lightweight title fight.

A number of other confrontations also deserved attention, in many of which fighters from Russia took part.

So, in the main card were Alexander Volkov and Magomed Ankalaev, and in the preliminary card - Alexander Yakovlev and Liana Jojua.

By the decision of the matchmakers, it was the last two who were entrusted to open the program of the entire tournament.

The first to enter the cage was Yakovlev, who was to rehabilitate himself for the defeat of Roosevelt Roberts at the Moscow show in November 2019.

At the same time, the task was not easy, because the talented Yoel Alvarez was identified as rivals.

In the UFC, the Spaniard won twice and once lost, and the victories were obtained ahead of schedule.

Alvarez did not betray himself this time either.

Yakovlev did not look the best in the stand, and as a result of an imprudent takedown attempt he ended up in the guillotine.

At the cost of tremendous efforts, the Russian managed to free his neck, but almost immediately gave up his hand to his counterpart.

This time he could not escape.

Jojua followed him into the octagon.

In July, the native of Georgia won her first victory in the Absolute Fighting Championship, but was unable to extend her successful streak.

Already in the first round, she missed an elbow blow from Miranda Maverick, as a result of which she opened a deep dissection.

For the remaining minutes, her face was covered with blood, but Liana managed to endure until the break and was ready to continue to fight.

However, the doctor intervened and imposed a ban on the resumption of the duel.

As UFC President Dana White later announced, Jojua did without serious injuries.

The girl's nose was not broken, and the dissection was quickly sewn up.

However, the athlete's mood was unlikely to improve from this.

She suffered the fourth defeat in her career and the second in the championship.

The rest of the preliminary card passed without the participation of the Russians, but at the same time it turned out to be quite eventful.

Thus, the former M-1 Global welterweight champion Shavkat Rakhmonov made his successful debut in the UFC, strangling the most experienced Alex Oliveira.

The Brazilian fighter, nicknamed Cowboy, confidently spent the first half of the round, but fell into the guillotine, from which he could not get out.

And later, heavyweight Tai Tuivasa won a spectacular victory by knockout.

The Australian sent experienced Stefan Struve to the floor and broke an unsuccessful streak of three consecutive failures.

And although he was not allowed to celebrate his triumph in the arena, he traditionally drank beer from his boot in the under-stands room.

The main program of the tournament was opened by the principled confrontation between Magomed Ankalaev and Ion Kutselaba.

The first meeting of opponents at UFC Fight Night 169 ended in a scandal, which was caused by the allegedly erroneous decision of the referee to stop the fight at the 38th second.

By this point, the Moldovan had missed a series of heavy punches, which gave the impression that he was in a standing knockout.

Apparently, Kevin MacDonald, who hastened to stop the beating, also thought so.

However, Kutselaba did not agree with the judge's verdict and stated that he was ready to continue the battle.

Subsequently, he turned to the matchmakers with a request to appoint a revenge, and they agreed.

True, it turned out to arrange it only on the fourth attempt.

The coronavirus interfered three times, and in the last two cases it was Ion who passed the positive test.

Kutselaba was determined to prove that the result of the first fight was an accident, but already in the fifth minute he was knocked out again.

Ankalaev caught the vis-a-vis in oncoming traffic and sent him to the floor with a series of two accurate strikes.

A brutal finishing move followed, which only the referee managed to stop.

As it turned out, this made a serious impression on the management, which awarded the Russian with a bonus of $ 50 thousand for "Performance of the Evening".

For Ankalaev, this victory was the fifth in a row in the light heavyweight division.

He not only became the leader of the division in terms of the length of a successful streak, but also outlined his claims to be in the top 10 of the ranking.

Before the return duel with Kucelaba, he occupied the 11th line and certainly deserved to climb a couple of steps up.

Alexander Volkov was no less successful.

The heavyweight was determined to rehabilitate himself for the fiasco in the battle with Curtis Blades and did some serious work on himself.

He came up to the fight with Walt Harris, possibly in the best physical shape in his entire career.

The Russian noticeably gained in muscle mass and looked much larger than usual, avoiding a loss in mobility.

As for Harris, he also tried to cover up the defeat he suffered in May.

Then he started a great fight with Alistair Overeem and almost knocked him out in the first round.

But already in the second, the American noticeably slowed down and ended up in the stalls, where the Dutchman embodied his superiority in experience.

The fight between Volkov and Harris turned out to be rather one-sided.

The Russian perfectly controlled the distance and evenly distributed the attacks across the "floors", thereby more and more confusing the vis-a-vis.

This bore fruit already at the end of the first five minutes.

Alexander showed that he would hit the front kick, but instead broke out in a series of punches to the head.

Walt was not ready for this and was close to knockdown, but he survived.

Everything was decided at the beginning of the seventh minute of the fight, and a direct kick to the body again became fatal.

Harris expected that Volkov would again manage with just a swing, but this time the front kick hit right in the stomach.

The American bent over in pain, but it took the Russian a few seconds to achieve another success.

Alexander won his 32nd career victory and successfully celebrated his 32nd birthday.

And after the fight, he announced that he was ready to fight the top fighters of the division, among which he singled out Jairzinho Rosenstrike, Junior Dos Santos and all the same Overeem.

Among other things, the main card of UFC 254 will be remembered for the second consecutive triumph of Robert Whittaker.

The ex-middleweight champion has confidently dealt with Jared Kannonir and announced his intention to have a rematch with the current belt holder Israel Adesanya.

Throughout most of the bout, the Australian outperformed his counterpart in all aspects and could well have won, but in the end he prevailed only by a referee decision.

All three referees gave him two rounds out of three.

The debutant of the championship Philip Hawes, who dealt with Jacob Malkun in 19 seconds, was marked by an effective knockout, and Lilia Shakirova could not start her performance in the UFC with a victory.

The first ever female fighter from Uzbekistan fell for a choke hold and lost to Lauren Murphy.